Marketplace

At the announcement that their jobs were gone the workers were upset and angry. Harsh words were uttered, the language strong. The union representative on this occasion did not help, stirring the workers up with provocative language. The owners, present at the meeting, he said were evil, evil people. Sometimes those kinds of words reflect our prejudices. Without a doubt power and wealth have been gained and maintained by some with ruthless disregard for those who either previously owned it or contributed effort, energy and saving to create it. But not always.

Isaac was a big man - muscles everywhere, a Maori; a husband; a father; a Christian. Isaac worked on railway maintenance. He said to me: ‘Martien you know that stuff you keep talking about, that ‘calling' stuff, does that work for me down there between the tracks?' Preaching recently on the subject of ‘vocation' or ‘calling' I took a ‘straw poll' of the congregation. In response to the question: ‘If you know that you are in the place that God has called you to be raise your hand?' three of the 120 people present raised their hands - the Vicar, the full time youth leader, and the associate minister. In response to: ‘If you are hoping to discover what it is that God has called you to please raise your hand?' the rest of the congregation raised their hands. In different denominations and in different groups the response is consistent.

It was at the company's annual gala dinner that Pete chose to pour out what had been on his heart for nearly six weeks. Pete was one of 78 consultants we employed around the world. I was General Manager. He was intense and full of unusual passion as he described his latest consulting assignment. The client was the World Bank and the location the Philippines. They were scoping a major training and consulting programme to rebuild local government. Pete described walking through a slum and discarding a near empty water bottle onto the ground with little thought. He watched as a young, very malnourished child ran in, grabbed the bottle, drank the last drops of clean water and stowed it carefully into an old sack so he could sell it to earn his survival. That simple image had burned into Pete's memory and even now at the dinner table Pete broke down and wept as he shared his experience with me, seemingly unaware of any at the table. With quiet sobs he told of how it had kept him awake at night ever since - the contrast of his own indifference and waste and the desperate scrabble for survival by a little boy. The flashy extravagance of the hotel hosting the dinner seemed to mock us as he spoke.
     

Reality Magazine Article No 4 2004 Over coffee I asked Steve what made his business ‘Christian'. He was silent for some time and then said "I didn't know it could be Christian, can a business be ‘saved'? What a good question. All over New Zealand there are Christians in positions of influence in business either through ownership or senior management in someone else's organization. While many of these people are living with integrity and honouring God in their personal lives their businesses are run just like everyone else's. Being a Christian personally has not necessarily changed the way the organization is run.

An Article from Reality Magazine
Steve passed the two pages of the job description across the desk to his very first employee, a Christian. "Here they are" he said, "the two pages we spoke about. The first page describes the job and the second listing the characteristics of Christian faith and witness I am looking for. Remember the next person we employ will not be a believer and I want that person to know what a Christian worker is like -  through you. I want him or her to know what a Christian boss is like through me. They will be with us and watching us for 40 hours each week, I want them to see Jesus"  

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Sally* produces a fashion line which has made a very successful entry into the market. Sally has become her church's single largest financial contributor. Her church teaches tithing and offerings (above and beyond tithing) and has set up a business club which openly exists for the purpose of giving to the work of the church. Sally is a member. Sally is more an entrepreneur than a manager. She has a poor record of staff turnover because of inadequate people skills; her suppliers are paid late, her financial management systems inadequate. She does not really care as she believes God will honour her business because financially she honours Him in her giving. The church business club has never addressed the issue of management style or skills. Despite the attractiveness of the brand her business finds itself in serious trouble and both her tithing and giving are down. The church moves to find her a management consultant to save her business.

Reality Magazine Article

"So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you: do not turn to the right or the left"
(Deut 5:32) I cannot resist, I will make every Biblical scholar cringe and bring an application to this verse that it never intended but to which its truth nevertheless applies in our day. Being involved in teaching about faiths engagement with the marketplace I often find myself in discussion about such issues as money and wealth, prosperity and poverty, simplicity (your definition or mine) and all the permutations of our faith engagement with one of the dominant, competing principalities 1  of our day, materialism. It never seizes to amaze me that the discussion carries so much political prejudice amongst Christians and the extent to which we as Christians interpret our theology on these topics through the filters of the political left and the political right.